Two weeks ago, I took part in a negotiations class. The instructor was a Harvard Law School graduate and told us that he had voted for Bush in 2000 but didn't intend to vote for him in 2004. Therefore, he said, he agreed with everyone in the class.
Last week, I traveled to New York and Toronto. Neither of these were battleground areas - Toronto for obvious reasons and New York is to Kerry what Texas is to Bush - namely, comfort food.
Though Canadians cannot vote in our elections, the major papers are covering the race on a daily basis. Haroon Siddiqui, a columnist with the Toronto Star neatly summed up the state of things here when he questioned, "Given the monumental mistakes made by this incumbent [President], why has Senator John Kerry failed to sew up this election, as he should have long ago?" Mr. Siddiqui's answer is, "Practising risk-averse politics, Kerry has failed to rise to this historic moment to provide the leadership many Americans have been desperately seeking."
On the way to New York, my Seattle cabdriver asked me if I had seen Fahrenheit 911 - he had just seen the DVD version. He thought it was a good film, but dashing Michael Moore's hopes, the cabbie disputed that the film would change anyone's mind. I had seen the film in the movie theatres and predictably, I thought it was an entertaining and thought-provoking film.
I received my absentee ballott last week in the mail and am looking forward to setting some time aside to vote - maybe during the next Sox/Cardinals matchup. This was one of the highlights on my trip. On Tuesday night, I went to a sports bar in New York with some colleagues and we watched Shilling's brilliant and apparently sanctified performance. As a Mets fan, I did enjoy seeing the Yanks crumble. If the Red Sox, one of history's true underdogs can triumph this year - maybe there is a chance for Kerry.
As to the election, though nearly every national poll has Bush leading Kerry, focusing on the 10 battleground states presents a different picture. According to RealClearPolitics.com, for example, Bush was definitively ahead in Ohio and Wsconsin before the debates and was leading by the margin of error or better, in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Now Kerry is narrowly ahead in all 4.
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